The Gospel of St. Matthew

On-line since: 15th January, 2017

APPENDIX I (see page 32)

An ancient Prophecy

An ancient
prophecy connected with the destiny and mission of
Zarathustra (Zerdosht) is quoted in The Book of the
Bee (Chapter XXXVIII), written by Solomon of Basrach
in the thirteenth century and translated by the late
Professor E. A. Wallis Budge from copies of the Syriac
text made at various and much later dates. The
manuscripts in question are in the custody of the
following libraries: Royal Asiatic Society, London, and
British Museum, London; Royal, Munich; Bodleian, Oxford.
There can be little doubt that the source of the contents
quoted below was a tradition, genuinely preserved from
approximately the sixth century B.C., of the incarnation
of the Zarathustra-Individuality as Zarathas or
Nazarathos in the regions of ancient Babylonia and of the
Tigris and Euphrates.

According
to the Preface, little is known of the author of The
Book of the Bee except that he was a Nestorian who
became metropolitan bishop of al Basra about A.D. 1222.
In this district traditions of the ancient Zarathustra
and particularly of his later incarnation were very
likely to have survived and would naturally have been
known to its bishop. The text of the prophecy is as
follows:

‘The Prophecy of Zaradosht concerning our
Lord.

This. Zaradosht is Baruch the
scribe. When he was sitting by the fountain of water
called Glosha of Horin, where the royal bath had been
erected, he said to his disciples, the king Gushnasp
and Sasan and Mahimad, “Hear my beloved children,
for I will reveal to you a mystery concerning the great
King who is about to rise upon the world. At the end of
time, and at the final dissolution, a child shall be
conceived in the womb of a virgin, and shall be formed
in her members, without any man approaching her. And he
shall be like a tree with beautiful foliage and laden
with fruit, standing in a parched land; and the
inhabitants of that land shall be gathered together to
uproot it from the earth, but shall not be able. Then
they will take him and crucify him upon a tree and
heaven and earth shall sit in mourning for his sake;
and all the families of the nations shall be in grief
for him. He will begin to go down to the depths of the
earth, and from the depth he will be exalted to the
height; then he will come with the armies of light, and
be borne aloft upon white clouds; for he is a child
conceived by the Word which establishes
natures.”

Gushnasp
says to him: “Whence has this one, of whom thou
sayest these things, his power? Is he greater than
thou, or art thou greater than he?” Zaradosht
says to him, “He shall descend from my family; I
am he, and he is I; he is in me, and I am in him. When
the beginning of his coming appears, mighty signs will
be seen in heaven, and his light shall surpass that of
the sun. But ye, sons of the seed of life, who have
come forth from the treasuries of life and light and
spirit, and have been sown in the land of fire and
water, for you it is meet to watch and take heed to
these things which I have spoken to you, that ye await
his coming; for you will be the first to perceive the
coming of that great king, whom the prisoners await to
be set free. Now, my sons, guard this secret which I
have revealed to you, and let it be kept in the
treasure-houses of your souls. And when that star rises
of which I have spoken, let ambassadors bearing
offerings be sent by you, and let them offer worship to
him. Watch, and take heed, and despise him not, that he
destroys you not with the sword; for he is the king of
kings, and all kings receive their crowns from him. He
and I are one !”

These are
the things which were spoken by this second Balaam, and
God, according to His custom, compelled him to
interpret these things; for he sprang from a people who
were acquainted with the prophecies concerning our Lord
Jesus Christ, and declared them aforetime.’

The
Book of the Bee is obviously a compilation from many
sources, the products of some of which were no doubt
rejected by the Church in the course of the centuries and
regarded as apocryphal. It is probably unnecessary to
emphasize that the traditions recorded in The Book of
the Bee should be read with discrimination, as in
the case of all such literature. Although errors obvious
even to lay waders may be said to be exceptional, they do
occasionally occur and should riot be overlooked. Some of
the fifty chapters amount to little more than abbreviated
versions of chapters of the Bible but many contain a
great deal of unfamiliar detail, for example in
connection with the Apostles and early converts to
Christianity. What may strike readers as very worthy of
note is that the chapter on Zaradosht's prophecy has been
inserted almost like an interruption in the biblical
sequence, immediately before the chapter telling of the
coming of the three Magi to the Child in Bethlehem. Very
interesting too are the words with which the writer of
The Book of the Bee refers to the star:

‘As
touching the nature of that star, whether it was a star
in its nature, or in appearance only, it is right to
know that it was not of the other stars but a secret
power which appeared like a star....’